4 Easy Ways To Blur Photos On Canva

In this Ultimate Canva Design Guide, you will learn how to blur a photo Canva and focus only on some parts of it. You’d be surprised that you can do this on Canva much simpler than how you can do it on Adobe Photoshop. Let’s get started.

How To Blur Photos On Canva

The best way to blur a photo on Canva is to first click on your photo to select it. Then, click the Edit Image button on the editor toolbar. On the left-hand side panel, scroll down to the fx Effects section and click on the Blur thumbnail.

Adjust the intensity of the Canva blur effect by moving the Intensity toggle left or right. Or increase the Intensity value in the box to blur your photo more.

Method 1: Canva Blur Effect

Canva’s new photo editor includes tools that help you add effects to your photos. One of them is the Blur effect. Here are the steps to blur your photo with the Canva’s Blur Effect tool:

Step 1: Select Photo

The item that you are going to blur has to be a photo. This means that the format of your item has to be either PNG or JPEG. You can’t blur a Canva vector file with this method.

Once you’ve placed this photo on your Canva design, click on it once to select it.

Step 2: Edit Image

Next, click the Edit Image button on the editor toolbar.

On the left-hand side panel, under the Effects tab, you will see a range of various filters and tools in Magic Studio. Scroll down to the fx Effects section and click on the Blur option.

Step 3: Toggle Intensity

Next, on the Intensity slider, drag the toggle to the right to increase the blur intensity.

You will see your image will start getting blurry. A counter on the right-hand side specifies the amount of blur. The higher the number or the further right you drag the toggle will add a more blurry effect to your image.

You can also use this method to create blurry images on mobile devices for the free account and Canva Pro plan.

Method 2: Adjust Filter

In this method, you will have to switch to the old editor to use the Canva Adjust Filter function. Here are the steps to blur your photo:

Step 1: Revert To Old Editor

The new editor doesn’t have this feature at this moment. To revert to the old editor, first click on your photo once.

Then, in the left-hand side panel, scroll to the bottom and you will see a note that says “You’re using the new photo editor. To use the old experience click here.”

Click on the text with a hyperlink that says “click here”. A pop-up will appear. Click the Revert To The Old Editor button.

Step 2: Edit Image

Click on the Edit Image button on the editor toolbar. On the left-hand side panel, scroll to the Adjust section and select See All.

Step 3: Adjust Blur

In the Adjust section, scroll to the Blur slider and toggle the value towards the right. Now your photo will be blurred.

Method 3: Blur Parts Of A Photo

Sometimes you don’t want to blur the whole image but just wish to blur edges, some unwanted areas, or blur faces in the images.

In this method, you will have to use the old editor. Here are the steps to blur certain areas in Canva:

Step 1: Blur Tool

Click on your image and select the Edit Image button on the editor toolbar.

Then, in the left-hand side panel, go to the Tools section and click on the Blur thumbnail.

A set of options will appear: Auto, Blur, and Restore.

If you wish to only apply the Canva blur effect to a part of a picture or image on your Canva design, do not select the Auto button, but select the Blur button with the “+” sign in a blue circle.

Step 2: Click And Drag Cursor

Then, bring the cursor over a part of an image, and you will see that the cursor changes to a circle. This circle cursor represents a blurred brush tip.

Click and hold your cursor and drag it around the part you want to blur, you will see parts of your image becoming blurred.

Step 3: Adjust Blur Cursor

The brush settings or advanced options are on the left side where you can adjust the blur, spread, and size of your brush. This is where you adjust the effect of the blurriness you want on your image:

• Toggle the intensity of the blur more to the right if you want the Canva blur effect to be stronger or to the left if you find there’s too much blur
• Toggle the spread up if you want the blur effect to be more scattered and spread out
• Toggle the brush size up if you want to increase the blur area

Click the Done button above your design to confirm the blur effect.

Method 4: Auto Focus

There are times when you want to make the focus of your image pop by making a bokeh effect or blurring the background of a photo.

This method is a fun one and super easy to use. But I prefer to use Auto Focus only on photos that I know are of the highest quality, sharp, and if backgrounds and foregrounds are distinctively clear.

The reason is, that Canva will automatically detect the areas on your photo to blur out and focus.

If your image is not sharp and if the background and foreground are both too noisy and colorful, it can be tough for Canva to differentiate which to blur.

With that, here are the steps to blur the background on a photo in the new Canva editor:

Step 1: Edit Image

First, click on your image and click the Edit Image button on the editor toolbar.

Step 2: Auto Focus

On the left-hand side panel, under the Effects tab, scroll down to the fx Effects section and click on the Auto Focus option.

The background of your photo will immediately be blurred more than before and the subject will be more focused.

Step 3: Adjust

At the same time, you will see the Auto Focus options appear in the left-hand side panel. Play around with the sliders and toggle till you achieve your desired blurriness.

For example, if you increase the Blur Intensity and decrease the Focus Position, you will get this effect:

How Do You Remove Blur in Canva?

In the event you wish to undo one of your actions or make a part of your image less blurry or clearer, you can do that with the Restore function. It’s the button with the minus “–” sign next to the Blur button.

Click on the Restore button once and hover your cursor over the image. Then, click and hold your cursor and drag on the part of your image that you want to restore.

You can adjust the Spread and Brush Size of the Restore cursor in the Restore options. Click on the Done button once done.

Final Thoughts: The Best Way to Blur Photos in Canva

The best way to blur in Canva should be the easiest way, depending on your objective. In general, I do find Method 3 useful.

I would use the Auto Blur tool to blur the whole image first. Then, use the Restore tool to remove some blurry effects from parts of my blurred image.

Blurring In Canva: FAQs

There may not be a tool to blur your text directly in Canva, but this little workaround can be done similar to how you blur shapes in Canva.

First, select your image and click on the Edit Image button above your Canva design. Then, on the left-hand side panel, go to the Tools section and click on Blur.

In the row of options that appear, click on the middle button with the “+” sign labeled Blur. Then, bring your cursor to the image and click and drag the cursor as you outline the edges of your image.

Adjust the options to give you the blur effect you want. You will see that only the outline of your image is blurred.